Nope, there's no article, no story - just the question in the headline. Let's think about it...what do we (that means you too) need in our lives to be happy? What do we WANT in our lives to be happy?
Deep stuff, right?! But what question could we ask ourselves where the answer could be more important, more essential, more fundamentally our happiest version of ourselves?
Throw down, Chestists, throw down.

Conflict's as inevitable a part of life as...pooping and peeing (you probably thought we were going to say death and taxes. Nope, not us.)

How we handle conflict can have a lot to do with how we feel. Some of us run head first into it and some of us run away from it like a coming storm.

What about you - do you deal with it head on; let it fester; swlallow it whole and never address it? Does it matter who the conflict is with? Are you more or less likely to deal with it if it's at hom,e, a friend, at work? Any tips from any of you guys on how you deal with it productively? Conflict...let's #discuss.

I make so many mistakes. At work, and with my family and friends. I do the wrong thing and sometimes I do the right thing in the wrong way. Sometimes I say the wrong thing even though I mean to say the right thing.

I carry my umbrella on days when it doesn't rain, and sometimes I don't carry it on days when it does. I take wrong turns, and sometimes choose the wrong things at restaurants. I give people breaks who don't deserve them and sometimes don't give breaks to people who do.

I can be short-tempered and quick-fused. I can trust blindly when I shouldn't. Sometimes I sleep with guys I wish I hadn't.

I can hold on to some things too long and other things and people not long enough. I buy things that I don't always like when I get them home. I've taken the easy way out when I should have done the right thing even if it was the harder thing. I've made a lot of mistakes.

A man crossed the street in front of my car yesterday. Since I was hiding behind my windshield, I had a rare opportunity to stare at him without the possibility of awkward accidental eye contact. He had what some call a FUPA, or Fat Upper Pussy/Penis Area. It was as if he had a monster truck tire strapped into his underwear, and he had to hobble across the street with a cane in order to carry all that extra weight. I stared without shame and followed his body from the very bottom of his ankles up. And at the top, I saw his face (Obviously. If his face weren’t there, I would have screamed). His huge bottom lip sagged down as if it were pulled by the extra weight of his FUPA. His mouth hung open, surely sloshing fellow pedestrians with uncontrollable drool.

I wanted to run out of my car and talk to this man. I wanted to know what it’s like to grow up with such a FUPA and such an uncontrollable ...

Like Juliet calling for Romeo, if you're like us, there are times when you find yourself wondering wherefore art thou, oh ever increasing happiness?

According to this article, part of our challenge may be that we define happiness as a result or conequence of something else that needs to happen first. So, as they ask in the original, which comes first for you: happiness or success? From the original:

"My guess is that you have already answered that question several times today. You answer it every time your brain says, "I'll be happy when I find a job." "I'll be happy when I get a promotion." "I'll be happy when my dissertation is finished."

The formula is clear: work harder, then you'll be successful, then you'll be happier....'I'm working my butt off now so I can be happy when...[fill in the blank with a six figure banking job, make a scientific breakthrough, get into medical school, etc.].'

Well, if that's the bad news, the Psychology Today story also serves up a fresh plate of the good news...it's all ...

This getting older thing can be funny. Seems few of us want to do it, and our milestone birthdays often seem like millstones around the necks of our happy (or maybe it's just our longevity).It's stranger still when you consider, as this reasearch did , that it's those over 60 who are the happiest amongst us. Or at least they're the happiest amongst the Brits, where the research was conducted. From the psychologytoday article:"Research on the happiness of different age groups in the UK has found - surprisingly, it might seem at first - that it's actually the over 60s. This research showed that happiness levels are quite high in the 20s, then dip through the 30s and reach their lowest point in the mid-forties. But after 50, they start to rise, and continue rising through the 60s, when they become even higher than young people's. Similarly, a recent world wide survey found that, so long as they are in fairly good health, 70 year ...

I was staring in the mirror. Noting every flaw, every change, every thing I wished were different. I was picking myself apart - more observationally than negatively, and wondering how what I had once been had become this 33 year-old version of me now, when I found myself saying "wow, you don't look very good."

Just as suddenly and actually taking me by surprise, I found myself saying "it is what it is and you are what you are." And I smiled at my reflection, and walked away feeling pretty good about the me that I am and no longer comparing it to the me I used to be :-) {end story}

Truth, the happy ending here took us by delightful surprise. How's about you, Chestists? What do you see when you look at you in the mirror? However it makes you feel, why do you think you feel that way? What needs to happen or change for you to feel (even) better? Let's #discuss.

(story submitted by Tara, a 21 yo Chestist)I want to be free. I feel like I'm sitting on a fence. I was born on that fence and realized I was there when I was 4. Now I want to jump off and run away. I just feel like it's time. I want to leave my old ways behind, my weed smoking, wall kicking, screaming, angry, scared self. I want to say "fuck you, thank you" to everything in my life that is a lesson presented as a challenge. Fucking pain in my body, lessons in my archive. I'm going to be fine, I just have to be patient. {end story}

I'm 26 and I'm refusing to grow-up. I know, age is just a mind-set, yet all my friends are already settling down with "real jobs" and relationships. Everyone seems in such a rush and almost burdened by the day by day.

I like uncertainty and being free. I like chasing excitement and the thrill of not knowing what's coming next. I like screaming outloud when I'm happy. I like making ends meet but knowing I can leave at any time. I have this one friend who says she thinks I'm running away from responsibility. She's probably right I just like it this way. {end story}

How old were you when you "grew up" (if you have)? And what's growing up mean to you, any way?

I remember when I was younger, growing up and still living at home, that I always had this sense that no matter what happened everything would work out for me. It was like a quiet comfort and security that I'd be fine no mattr what did and din't happen. Not invincibility, just security. Even when things weren't good I just knew they would be eventually.

I'm 31 now and realize I've lost that feeling. Life's worked out well for me so far but I've entered a period of uncertainty and have realized that the sense of well-being that had always been there isn't any more. I don't know where or how or when I lost it, I'd just like it back. {end story}

Any advice for Elena on getting her groove back? Any of you have a similar sense that no matter what happens, everything is going to be just fine? (we sure hope so.)

I love singing loudly when no one can hear me. I love designer clothes. I love my family and my friends. I love dogs (I'm not that into cats). I love beaches. I know, who doesn't? I love dancing. I love long weekends. I love that feeling when you've wondered if something good will happen and it does. I love kids (but I don't want any). I love being in love and wish I was. I love that I know I will be and I love that I don't worry about the fact that I'm not. {end story}

Ah love. What - not who - do you love? (Ok, you can tell us who if you want to. Why? Because we love you.)